The present invention relates to a method and system for supporting design of home electric appliances, OA devices, and the like.
As a method for quantitatively evaluating a parts assembling time in the product design, for example, JP-A-2003-39260 discloses a method for analyzing the product parts assembling operation and calculating the assembling time for each of the parts. This is an assembly time estimation method including a step for making about 50 types of assembly operations and attribute assembly difficulties into coefficients in advance, a step for analyzing the assembly operations and attributes of parts of a product, a calculation step for calculating the assembling time of each part according to the analyzed data and the assembly difficulty by using Expression (1) of JP-A-2003-39260 given below, and a step for displaying the calculation result.[Assembly time tx]=[toperation x]×[βattribute y1]×[βattribute y2]×  (1),
wherein toperation x represents the assembling operation time when no attribute exists, and βattribute y represents a ratio of the affect given to the assembling operation time by the attribute accompanying the assembling operation (assembly difficulty (attribute)).
Moreover, as a method for quantitatively evaluating a defective assembly occurrence ratio, for example, JP-A-10-334151 discloses a method for analyzing a product parts assembling operation and calculating a defective assembly occurrence ratio for each part. This is a defective assembly occurrence ratio estimation method including a step for making defective assembly potential of about 50 types of assembling operations and attributes into coefficients in advance, a step for analyzing product parts assembling operations and attributes, a calculation step for calculating a defective assembly occurrence ratio of each part from the analyzed data and the defective assembly coefficient by using Expression (2) of JP-A-10-334151 given below, and a step for displaying the calculation result.[Defective assembly occurrence ratio ux]=[uoperation x]×[θattribute y1]×[θattribute y2]×  (2)
wherein uoperation x represents the defective assembly occurrence ratio when no attribute exists, and θattribute y represents a ratio of the effect given to the defective assembly occurrence ratio by the attribute accompanying the assembling operation (defective assembly coefficient (attribute)).
Moreover, as a method for creating improvements for solving the problems, for example, Matrix 2003: Updating the TRIZ Contradiction Matrix (Darrell Mann, Simon Dewulf, Boris Zlotin, Alla Zusman, CREAX Press, Belgium, 2003) suggests a method for selecting an item to be improved and a problem generated by the improvement from a two-dimensional table and guiding the page describing a hint for the improvement. The method divides an enormous amount of patent items in the past into items to be improved such as “weight of a moving object” and items degraded by the improvement such as “strength of the moving object” and summarizes “how to solve the problems of the items degraded when the improvement item is executed.” Firstly, a two-dimensional table is created with “improvement items” arranged vertically and “degraded items” arranged horizontally. Then, at their intersecting points, numbers attached to “the solution examples” are written. Another table is prepared with the numbers and “the solution examples”. A designer firstly searches for a corresponding number in the two-dimensional table. Next, the designer searches for the solution example described in the column of the number. Lastly, by referencing the solution example, the designer creates an improvement configuration.
However, even if it is possible to estimate the assembling time for each part and the defective assembly occurrence ratio, it is impossible to know how the assembling operation of the part and the attribute affect the total assembling cost obtained by adding the assembling cost and a loss caused by defective assembly and it is impossible to specify an improvement object. Moreover, even if it is possible to identify a part requiring a long assembling time and a part causing a high defective assembly occurrence ratio, it is impossible to create a configuration plan for improving them.
Moreover, since the aforementioned Matrix 2003 aims at improvement of the basic performance, it has a problem that it cannot be employed for reducing the assembling time concerning a specific part assembling operation and attribute and reducing the defective assembly occurrence ratio.